According to a study from the Cato Institute, welfare benefits payout more than a full time minimum wage job in at least 35 states! In at least thirteen states, the payout is more than $15 an hour! And even more shocking, is that if someone were to draw all of the welfare benefits available to them, their pay would be more than that of a newly college educated teacher in eleven states, and it would add up to more than the salary of a computer programmer in three states!

If you found it hard to believe that thirteen states pay more than $15 an hour in welfare benefits, then you would find it even harder to believe that the highest welfare payout states pay more than $20 an hour! These states include: Hawaii, with payments equaling $29.13 per hour, DC at $24.43 per hour, Massachusetts at $24.30 , Connecticut at $21.33, New York at $21.01 per hour, New Jersey at $20.89 per hour, Rhode Island at $20.83 per hour and Vermont at $20.36 per hour.

Think of all of this the next time you get your paycheck and determine that it may or may not be enough for you to meet your budget’s needs.